Telnet has been a depreciated protocol for donkeys years now. Most Linux distros I know will not enable it (hey, the daemon isn't even installed, so I call it more than turned off as you call it) unless you really want it and indeed sshd is the preferred option.
This isn't about getting Herry elected, it is because a large number of people really don't want Bush, some of them even happen to be Republicans but it is pretty hard to stop the bid for a second term by a sitting president from within the party.
Bush polarises people. Some people really think that he is great, sorting out the economy and liberating countries. Many think that he is spending too much money giving his friends tax cuts and totally failing to understand that how national credibility depends on doing the right things for the right reasons. Being against Bush doesn't mean you are a democrat. You could be Osama bin Laden, but at the same time you could be Warren Buffett or George Soros.
What about burn-in? Plasma screens tend to be quite sensitive to static images being shown over a period, i.e., even logos.
I believe projectors to be superior, but unless you really have a theatre to use them in, between ambient lighting, seating position and all of the rest of it, you will suffer.
Not just architecture, their materials science/solid-state physics was top notch. Russians were very rigorously trained in mathematics (even in high-school, by western standards) so they were very good at these things. On the computing side, they learned to achieve more with a lot less.
Alibek would have known about the weapons develpment program but what goes on top of a missile isn't, strictly speaking, his business. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't have the option, it just wasn't very high on the list.
The Sovs didn't think their missiles would be shot down because of the ABM treaty. This was also an early attempt at arms reduction. Soviet missiles may not have been as accurate for targetting so attacks against US silos weren't that likely to work. However, their strategy was essentially defensive rather than first-strike. The missiles would have been sufficiently well dispersed to have survive a supposed US first strike. One of the reasons I feel it is unlikely is that logistics sucked in the Soviet Union. A bioweapon needs to be carefully stored and transported before it goes on a missile. It also needs more protection during reentry.
I do agree that a stealth attack is more likely in the event of a bioweapon. However, it would still create a lot of practical difficulties. You really need a wide/fast dispersion. You also need ideal weather, otherwise the virus will be deactivated by sunlight before it hits the ground and it won't be well dispersed.
A virus must reproduce, it must usurp it's hosts cellular mechanisms to propagate. A virus can and does mutate. If you add lots of protective mechanisms then the virus won't be reproduced fast enough. Stuff like Anthrax will stay relative stable as human's can't infect other humans easily. Smallpox can/does. It will mutate.
I can't remember the book that was being discussed. It was one by a former CIA person, but of the type that seriously overestimated what was going one but it was discussed here. I say overestimated because it talked about tampering with chip reliability. This really wasn't feasible given that western engineers were involved with bedding the equipment in. A westerner noticing problems would have logged it quickly because he would have thought that the company would be blamed. In soviet times, you didn't make mistakes - there was always a KGB led sabotage inquiry.
I worked for about a 6 year period in the former Soviet Union based mostly in St. Petersburg and Tashkent. I'm now based mostly in Germany. My contacts were with the financial markets, but they were mostly former scientists. Banking pays better than physics even if you are literally a rocket scientist and the maths is easier. It is through these people that I learned about some of the things. I also bumped into some westerners involved with nuclear disarmnament (actually, a very boring job).
As regards the restrictions on the movement of persons between the DDR and the west, it came too quickly for most people to get out. It certainly didn't happen slow enough for the equipment to be moved. The only technology that could be evacuated was the V2 and then only shortly before the Russians arrived.
Eastern Europe certainly had minicomputers, mostly copies of western systems like the VAX but they had them. They were defintitely a generation or two behind the west for ICs and once the export controls came through, it was difficult to get hold of major equipment. Spare parts were easier to smuggle when they were physically not so large.
On the other side you need to look at where ICs came from in the west. Sure they started life in ICBM guidance systems, but what made them really take off were the domestic applications. Sure the soviet union had the ICBMS but not the washing machines. This is because there were too many barriers between military and commercial applications.
I would challenge your info there. Look at a really nasty naturally occurring virus like Ebola (and family). First, it isn't 100%. Second, it kills people too quickly to speard widely. Third, it evolves too, Ebola Reeston was a dud.
The multiplier factor depends upon population mobility. If someone released the stuff in the middle of a football stadium, maybe it would be undetected for a while. An airburst from a non-nuke ICBM would lead to a lockdown before anyone could say 9/11.
Lastly, how do you stop you infecting your population or even just your military? The Soviet army is massive, but there aren't enough CBW suits or vaccinations to go around.
The soviets undoubtadly had a very nasty weapons program, but the deployed stuff was fairly basic (Anthrax, Bubonic plague, etc.).
From my understanding, western ICBM's were usually pretargetted (at least the ones in silos and the subs). The pointing at the ocean happened after the STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Some Russian ones may still be pointing towards China now.
In the last ten year (note after he fall of the Soviet Union), some really interesting things have been learned about the human immune system, much of that because of HIV. Twenty or so years ago, this wasn't really known about in enough detail.
The problem with bioweapons is that they are living, they mutate and they usually leave a percentage of the population unaffected. In the time that the Soviets were messing about with these things, not enough was known about the way the immune system works or the countermeasures in order to be aware.
The worst part of it is that you have many of the same problems as your enemy once territory has been infected. You can't do anything without a CBW suit.
Alibek is a dubious source. He knows bioweapons but seems to exaggerate things to enhance his worth. Yes, they had a shit load of stuff, but it was for shorter-range missiles and bombs.
Someone else already posted about any ICBM being interpreted as a nuclear launch and being responded to immediately. Bioweapons aren't 100%, they take time - time for your enemy to launch a massive response. If you want to hit them with anything, you want to disable their ability to retaliate.
One of the most infectious virii known is Ebola. It isn't a danger because it kills its victims before they can travel with it. Flu is milder, which it is why it is more deadly over time. The common cold is one of the mildest of them all, which is why it is endemic in the population.
rust the smugglers - CIA/NSA/MI-5 (or is it 6? no 42!) like to trick smugglers into smuggling broken stuff (e.g. gas pipeline control equipment that goes unstable causing tremendous non-nuclear explosion at Siberia gas liquification facility)
This story is fiction. I worked with the company that built the TransSib telemtry control system. The explosion was due to a train of LPG going up. Nothing to do with the telemetry control system.
The story comes from a cold-warrior who is selling a book based of tall stories that was then plugged by a dubious journo called William Safire.
As for the rest of it, well it depended on where you were. The East Germans were quite good at making chips (optical expertise) - it isn't a coincidence the AMD fab is there. As for training and troubleshooting expertise, whatever wasn't available from the west through the front door often came out of the back.
In some countries at least, the dialers are still using the special-rate services within the country. If a local telco is providing the service is can be held to be a direct party to the thing and they can withold fees from illegal activities. Given the misleading dialer consent stuff (and at one stage I fixed someone's computer that was hit by a dialer without any 'click' on license), it is relatively easy to complain to the telco.
There are many dialers and they aren't all porn linked or obvious when they download. Many are poorly written and even if the customer isn't directly effected (i.e., ADSL subscriber), the system becomes unstable.
There are small base stations (BTS) which may be used to provide coverage at special events such as shows or in limited coverage areas. The mobile system works well, for example, in Germany's many underground transit systems. As far as the cell company is concerned, it is just a question of getting the traffic to pay for the BTS.
With GSM, the mobile or MSE listens for a network. When it finds a network that is compatible, it may try to login which involves sending subscriber information to the switching centre (MSC). If the MSC doesn not identify the subscriber it can either support limited access (i.e., 911) or just refuse in which case the MSE knows not to try and login again with that network until it is powered cycled. The capacity of GSM systems isn't that great, but it is very easy to lock down access to a subset of units.
A switch can work with its own registered handsets only. Other handsets can be told to shutup or be provided with '911' only. Although radio also has possibilities, a modern cellular system also offers SMS which can be very efficient, especially if reception is patchy.
Of course if you wanted to keep things nice and predictable, you could just build a railway around the pole at a decent enough distance. You could then pop into and ut of the sun as you and/or the experiments need it.
The main issue is how much warning you would get of storms. If a storm takes 72 hours to come in (I seem to remember the lag that was reported last year between one major flair and the resultng aurora) then you just need to keep within a margin of that away from the terminator line.
I like the idea, but they are talking about a metre or so of regolith. Not good to keep carrying around. Another issue is that when particles collide with the lunar surface, there is secondary radiation from the bits that 'bounced'. This suggests that you need more than just a roof.
Forget cosmic, the main issue for the lunar camperwould be solar, i.e., during flares. This is already a major issue for mission planners and the ISS has a single protected area where astronauts can hide in when NASA sounds the alarm.
Of coure it would be possible to do something similar for NASA's lunar-camper. It would just add to the weight. A static underground shelter as you suggest would be much better.
This (Password/TAN) is also typical for Germany and Switzerland. The OTP is just one sheet and I may have one TAN number with me on my PDA. I can limit my account turnover and as I can see my transactions without a TAN, if I see something dodgy that hasn't gone through (payments generally go overnight), then I can ask for it to be killed. It really isn't difficult and I prefer it that way.
If I have to use IE, I can never be sure that my browser is my own. It is even theoretically possible for Moz/Firebird to be compromised. A TAN code is really cheap protection.
The Van Allen belt contains by defintion charged particles (trapped by the Earth's geomagnetic field). This will just be lot of Alpha and Beta particles with some ions. Alpha is stopped by compartively small amounts of shielding (foil does well enough). Beta is more penetrating, but water could help that (it can also be easilty transferred to the downward elevator for bidirectional travel.
Big lumps of Lead is only vital when we are talking X-rays or Gamma. To be honest, with such a long ascent, probably solar flares would be more dangerous (and these do give off X-rays at least).
Well the key problems are reusablility and turnaround for the X-prize. Conventional staged rockets leave too much behind, although I understand the logic of weight reduction. I like the SC idea of a lifting body because both parts return to earth in a controlled fashion.
The SST that you mention is interesting because of this, however I agree reentry could be more problematic especially as people go higher/faster and Scaled Composite are already talking 150Km.
The skip technique has been discussed elsewhere for small RVs. The idea being that the heat can be radiated away during the skip so less of a heat shield is required than something like the shuttle.
What other ideas would you have given budget to get 100% reusability and minimal maintenance?
Ah, but what do you think about the 'lifting-body' approach for launches? I see where you are coming from in high-performance rocket engines, but still it remains that if you can launch drom the air, you have the benefit of a conventional craft to get you to a decent speed and altitude where the air is thinner. Certainly, the ability to glide down is nice and the reuirement of the X-prize for reusability is an excellent goal.
The problem is with a higher-pressure system is that it will probably burn through any vanes faster. This means you have to think about other means such as gimbling (steering the motor itself).
I thought the problem with cross-range is that it meant that the reentry profile had to be shallower with more of the Shuttle underside being heated as it is flying more level.
What I don't understand is that reentry with a high AoA would only cause heating at the base and for a shorter period (although arguably the same energy must be lost, so the base must get hotter).
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Telnet has been a depreciated protocol for donkeys years now. Most Linux distros I know will not enable it (hey, the daemon isn't even installed, so I call it more than turned off as you call it) unless you really want it and indeed sshd is the preferred option.
Bush polarises people. Some people really think that he is great, sorting out the economy and liberating countries. Many think that he is spending too much money giving his friends tax cuts and totally failing to understand that how national credibility depends on doing the right things for the right reasons. Being against Bush doesn't mean you are a democrat. You could be Osama bin Laden, but at the same time you could be Warren Buffett or George Soros.
I believe projectors to be superior, but unless you really have a theatre to use them in, between ambient lighting, seating position and all of the rest of it, you will suffer.
Not just architecture, their materials science/solid-state physics was top notch. Russians were very rigorously trained in mathematics (even in high-school, by western standards) so they were very good at these things. On the computing side, they learned to achieve more with a lot less.
The Sovs didn't think their missiles would be shot down because of the ABM treaty. This was also an early attempt at arms reduction. Soviet missiles may not have been as accurate for targetting so attacks against US silos weren't that likely to work. However, their strategy was essentially defensive rather than first-strike. The missiles would have been sufficiently well dispersed to have survive a supposed US first strike. One of the reasons I feel it is unlikely is that logistics sucked in the Soviet Union. A bioweapon needs to be carefully stored and transported before it goes on a missile. It also needs more protection during reentry.
I do agree that a stealth attack is more likely in the event of a bioweapon. However, it would still create a lot of practical difficulties. You really need a wide/fast dispersion. You also need ideal weather, otherwise the virus will be deactivated by sunlight before it hits the ground and it won't be well dispersed.
A virus must reproduce, it must usurp it's hosts cellular mechanisms to propagate. A virus can and does mutate. If you add lots of protective mechanisms then the virus won't be reproduced fast enough. Stuff like Anthrax will stay relative stable as human's can't infect other humans easily. Smallpox can/does. It will mutate.
I worked for about a 6 year period in the former Soviet Union based mostly in St. Petersburg and Tashkent. I'm now based mostly in Germany. My contacts were with the financial markets, but they were mostly former scientists. Banking pays better than physics even if you are literally a rocket scientist and the maths is easier. It is through these people that I learned about some of the things. I also bumped into some westerners involved with nuclear disarmnament (actually, a very boring job).
As regards the restrictions on the movement of persons between the DDR and the west, it came too quickly for most people to get out. It certainly didn't happen slow enough for the equipment to be moved. The only technology that could be evacuated was the V2 and then only shortly before the Russians arrived.
Eastern Europe certainly had minicomputers, mostly copies of western systems like the VAX but they had them. They were defintitely a generation or two behind the west for ICs and once the export controls came through, it was difficult to get hold of major equipment. Spare parts were easier to smuggle when they were physically not so large.
On the other side you need to look at where ICs came from in the west. Sure they started life in ICBM guidance systems, but what made them really take off were the domestic applications. Sure the soviet union had the ICBMS but not the washing machines. This is because there were too many barriers between military and commercial applications.
The multiplier factor depends upon population mobility. If someone released the stuff in the middle of a football stadium, maybe it would be undetected for a while. An airburst from a non-nuke ICBM would lead to a lockdown before anyone could say 9/11.
Lastly, how do you stop you infecting your population or even just your military? The Soviet army is massive, but there aren't enough CBW suits or vaccinations to go around.
The soviets undoubtadly had a very nasty weapons program, but the deployed stuff was fairly basic (Anthrax, Bubonic plague, etc.).
From my understanding, western ICBM's were usually pretargetted (at least the ones in silos and the subs). The pointing at the ocean happened after the STrategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Some Russian ones may still be pointing towards China now.
The problem with bioweapons is that they are living, they mutate and they usually leave a percentage of the population unaffected. In the time that the Soviets were messing about with these things, not enough was known about the way the immune system works or the countermeasures in order to be aware.
The worst part of it is that you have many of the same problems as your enemy once territory has been infected. You can't do anything without a CBW suit.
Someone else already posted about any ICBM being interpreted as a nuclear launch and being responded to immediately. Bioweapons aren't 100%, they take time - time for your enemy to launch a massive response. If you want to hit them with anything, you want to disable their ability to retaliate.
One of the most infectious virii known is Ebola. It isn't a danger because it kills its victims before they can travel with it. Flu is milder, which it is why it is more deadly over time. The common cold is one of the mildest of them all, which is why it is endemic in the population.
In some countries at least, the dialers are still using the special-rate services within the country. If a local telco is providing the service is can be held to be a direct party to the thing and they can withold fees from illegal activities. Given the misleading dialer consent stuff (and at one stage I fixed someone's computer that was hit by a dialer without any 'click' on license), it is relatively easy to complain to the telco.
There are many dialers and they aren't all porn linked or obvious when they download. Many are poorly written and even if the customer isn't directly effected (i.e., ADSL subscriber), the system becomes unstable.
There are small base stations (BTS) which may be used to provide coverage at special events such as shows or in limited coverage areas. The mobile system works well, for example, in Germany's many underground transit systems. As far as the cell company is concerned, it is just a question of getting the traffic to pay for the BTS.
With GSM, the mobile or MSE listens for a network. When it finds a network that is compatible, it may try to login which involves sending subscriber information to the switching centre (MSC). If the MSC doesn not identify the subscriber it can either support limited access (i.e., 911) or just refuse in which case the MSE knows not to try and login again with that network until it is powered cycled. The capacity of GSM systems isn't that great, but it is very easy to lock down access to a subset of units.
A switch can work with its own registered handsets only. Other handsets can be told to shutup or be provided with '911' only. Although radio also has possibilities, a modern cellular system also offers SMS which can be very efficient, especially if reception is patchy.
Of course if you wanted to keep things nice and predictable, you could just build a railway around the pole at a decent enough distance. You could then pop into and ut of the sun as you and/or the experiments need it.
The main issue is how much warning you would get of storms. If a storm takes 72 hours to come in (I seem to remember the lag that was reported last year between one major flair and the resultng aurora) then you just need to keep within a margin of that away from the terminator line.
I like the idea, but they are talking about a metre or so of regolith. Not good to keep carrying around. Another issue is that when particles collide with the lunar surface, there is secondary radiation from the bits that 'bounced'. This suggests that you need more than just a roof.
Of coure it would be possible to do something similar for NASA's lunar-camper. It would just add to the weight. A static underground shelter as you suggest would be much better.
If I have to use IE, I can never be sure that my browser is my own. It is even theoretically possible for Moz/Firebird to be compromised. A TAN code is really cheap protection.
Big lumps of Lead is only vital when we are talking X-rays or Gamma. To be honest, with such a long ascent, probably solar flares would be more dangerous (and these do give off X-rays at least).
The SST that you mention is interesting because of this, however I agree reentry could be more problematic especially as people go higher/faster and Scaled Composite are already talking 150Km.
The skip technique has been discussed elsewhere for small RVs. The idea being that the heat can be radiated away during the skip so less of a heat shield is required than something like the shuttle.
What other ideas would you have given budget to get 100% reusability and minimal maintenance?
The problem is with a higher-pressure system is that it will probably burn through any vanes faster. This means you have to think about other means such as gimbling (steering the motor itself).
What I don't understand is that reentry with a high AoA would only cause heating at the base and for a shorter period (although arguably the same energy must be lost, so the base must get hotter).